Family Help Advocate

Family Help Advocate Role Description 

About the Refugee and Migrant Centre 

• RMC vision: A society where newcomers feel welcome, valued and live dignified lives. 
• RMC mission: We will act with humanity and compassion – knowing that with the right support and a chance to rebuild their lives, people can go on to thrive and be equal citizens.  

To fulfil our mission and vision, RMC offers advice and guidance in the areas of housing and destitution, training, employment, health and immigration.  RMC provides a free drop-in service with face-to-face, holistic advice, support and guidance to clients. 

This role will be based at the Walsall Office of RMC and involve travel throughout the West Locality of Walsall.  

The aim of the pathfinder pilot is to support families in that locality who are subject to a Child Protection Plan and who will have lost trust in statuary provision.  

Pathfinder volunteers will be supported by the Project Lead who sits within the Resettlement and Integration Team at RMC. We will be looking to recruit two types of volunteers; mentors and advocates. Both have distinct remits within the programme, and we envisage that they will have limited overlap.  

Mentors will support families, parents, over a 12-week programme and look at specific aspects of family life with which to support. Advocates will support families before, during and after Child Protection meetings, ensuring the voices of parents and children are heard.  

An enhanced DBS check and two satisfactory references will be required for this role.  

Family Help Advocate 

Specific tasks:  

• Support parents before, during and after Child Protection meetings ensuring the voices of family members are heard.  

Before:  

• Preparation: Explaining the process, what to expect, and the roles of different professionals. Advocates provide families with detailed information about the structure of the meeting, the agenda, and the key points that will be discussed. This helps to demystify the process and reduce anxiety.  
• Understanding Rights: Ensuring parents understand their rights and procedures. Advocates educate parents about their legal rights under the Children Act and other relevant legislation, ensuring they know what to expect and how to advocate for their child's best interests.  
• Formulating Questions: Assisting parents in formulating questions. We work with parents to develop a list of questions they may want to ask during the meeting, ensuring they are prepared to engage actively and seek the information they need from the relevant professionals present.  

During the Child Protection Meeting  

Advocates continue to ascertain parents' views and wishes before the conference and work with them during the meeting to ensure their voices are heard. Sometimes, the advocate will speak on their behalf. They help parents understand their rights under the Children Act and other relevant legislation, including what it means if Children's Services start pre-proceedings.  

• Representation: Representing parents' views and speaking on their behalf if needed by ensuring that parents' concerns and perspectives are clearly communicated to the professionals.  
• Clarification: Clarifying jargon or complex information. Our advocates will help parents understand any technical language or complex concepts discussed during the meeting, ensuring they are fully informed.  
• Ensuring Participation: Ensuring parents' voices are heard and they actively participate by enabling and encouraging parents to engage in the discussion, ask questions, and provide input on the child protection plan.  
• Support: Our advocates will offer reassurance and emotional support throughout the meeting, helping parents stay calm, focused, and engaged.  

Mediation and Debrief After Meetings  

After the meeting, advocates provide a short debrief and schedule a longer meeting within the same week to discuss the child protection plan in further detail.  

• Reviewing Outcomes: Helping parents review outcomes and understand decisions by going through the decisions made during the meeting with parents, ensuring they understand the implications and next steps.  
• Planning Next Steps: Our advocates, supervised by staff, will support families in considering next steps and actions. We will help parents develop a clear plan of action, outlining what needs to be done by when and by whom.  
• Follow-Up: Continuing to engage with families via follow-up support and access to additional resources. We will check in with parents regularly to provide ongoing support and connect them with any additional services or resources they may need for the duration of the programme.  

Skills required 

We provide a comprehensive induction, on-going training and support to all our volunteers but there are some skills we require you to have before you begin with us, these include: 

• A friendly and approachable personality 
• Enthusiastic and passionate about working with families 
• Willingness to work as part of a team 
• An understanding and acceptance of equal opportunities 
• An awareness of safeguarding policy and practice, including knowledge of child protection 
• A willingness to travel and carry out home visits as part of the role 
• Basic computer skills 
• A good level of English speaking, reading and writing with good verbal communication skills 
• Speaking a language or languages, in addition to English, is desirable, but not essential.   

Other information 

Disabled access: Yes 

Insurance: Yes 

Travel Expenses: Yes 

Induction: Yes 

Training: Yes 

Health and Safety Policy: Yes 

Equal Opportunities Policy: Yes 

Application process 

The application process will involve the completion of an application form, an informal face-to-face meeting, reference checks and a DBS.  

If you would like more information on the role, you can find out more and complete your application on our website.